A knight in off-white armor

Image credit Bell of Lost Souls

 

 

It would appear that Forgeworld has gone and made the decision of weather or not to convert my plastic Knight to one of the new FW kits when they eventually come out by producing their own made entirely of resin(at least I think that body is pure resin) I can't say enough how much I (and everyone and their mother) love Forgeworld pieces, they are like the JW Blue label of the hobby. The lancer of course is no exception, I love that they added interior details (I have to assume since no top down shots were give, but it dose have a hatch) One thing I will say is that I am not 100% sold on that shield, yeah I get it, energy fields and such, but it looks a tad flimsy when paired with the venerable bulk of the Knights frame.

 

 

BoLS also has more pics of some of the other up an coming stuff from FW, mostly SM and Mechanicum (neither of which are on my Trello atm) I will say those staypuff terminators have my eye though. Check out the rest of the photos from the original post here

Old Stuff Day: Vampire Psyker

In keeping with the spirit of things I decided to rummage around the old bitz box. Now off the cuff you might think that this handsome fellow is Mephiston, well according to the 1995 GW catalogue you would be wrong (he is clearly a psi vampire) that being said its interesting to see where current pieces got there start, some of Citadel's models from the 80s are just down right silly, while others are just plain beautiful. This particular piece will be finding new life in my latest space marine flavor of the month project so keep an eye out for this guy down the line.

Also just to stay in line with the old post format I present my short lived experimental Imperial 66 rule set.

Happy old Stuff day

Scott

BH Senior Editor.

P.S.

If you want to know more about Old Stuff day you can visit your local library, and when you realise that there was no point to going there use one of the public terminals to check out Rob over at Warhammer 39,9999

Stormraven: Is it a game changer?

As of late all the buzz at GW (and the community at large) has been split between the Skaven death machines and a quirky little shoebox full of guns called the Stormraven. Yes when this big uggo was released to the blogosphear articles sprang up left and right proclaiming there love or hate for the new model. But where is the tactica? Certainly there where more then a couple people who chose to kitbash the then mysterious flying box including this handsome devil made by Brent, but there was only a smattering of actual tactics related posts. Now I will again state that I do not play Blood Angels, that's Ian's bat. Why then would I talk about this unit in battle. While I may not field the "that time of the month" marines I have watched this unit get thrown about and smashed time and time again (I also read the codex but thats not really an important point.) So let us regard this as my thoughts on the unit based upon observation.

Where to start, how about the size? Ahh yes the size, the Stormraven is not a small piece, its roughly the same size as the Valkyrie, add to that it is stuck atop a tall flying base and thus making it one tough bastard to hide "but Scott it gets its own cover save for moveing flat out" You have a point there imaginary heckler. While it dose gain the 4+ save for moving flat out its not practical to use it, especially if you are currently transporting a unit. Flatout saves where effectively castrated in the last FAQ, thus making it a rather risky proposition to chance several hundred points worth of units and up to three possible kill points on a 4+ cover save "but what about the ceramite plating, that's gotta count for something right?" Why yes it does, it discounts one weapon from the massive arsenal of anti armor based units. Don't get me wrong, flipping the bird to melta based weapons is all good in my book but its no eldar energy field (I hate those damn things) Fancy armor aside you are essentially fielding a beefier Valkyrie, this means that like the Valkyrie your opponent is going to throw every anti armor unit he has at it (well the ones within range anyways)

How would I field it in combat? Well lets look at what its designed for, which naturally is clubbing baby seals at close range (baby seals being guard, tau, eldar, nid gaunts) It also has fairly decent anti armor capability but we will get to that later. Hurricane bolters and nose mounted rocket launchers say this bad boy is good at wracking up a high body count with light infantry (baby seals) Compound that with the ability to drop off a squad of rather ornery Deathcompany and there Big black armored buddie gives you a pretty good picture as to why I see this more as a striker unit then a blocker or a hunter. The ability to drop in on an objective point and unleash a crate full of raged up armored killing machines makes the Stormraven an ideal unit for objective clearing, and after its done unleashing hell it can go on its merry way to harass other would be threats to your precious blasted out husk/holy shrine that you currently do not wish to share with the other player/s.

Ok so deep striking shoebox with assault vehicle rules makes it an awesome striker, but how about that anti armor I mentioned earlier. Lets start off with the first and for some reason most popular choice, TL lascannons. Ok these bad boys are pretty much at the top of the heap when it comes to popping heavy armor, and twin linked makes them even more potent, but here's the trade off, your almost guaranteed at the very least one glancing shot, the down side is you get one glance/pen, one. Call me greedy but I would like a little bit more out of my shooting phase when I am dealing with those pesky template chucking bastards that are currently blasting the new finish off my tac marines. This is the reason I prefer the assault cannon, sure its only strength 6 but that will hole most anything short of a Landraider (and yes I have a plan for that to) and instead of banking on one solid shot from the lascannon you now have three twin linked possible glances that your opponent is now forced to divy up amongst his squad (or forced to take all three on his precious command squad rhino/carnifex/unicorn) Let us then add a little power of the machine spirit to the mix, when opening up a transport (insert which ever soup can you are currently facing) you now have that lovely possibility of squeezing those units out into the open, then forcing saves with your trusty hurricane bolters/typhoon missile launcher. Barring some truly terrible (and very possible) rolls you can in theory have your cake and eat it to (the cake in this instance being the slagged remains of your enemy's ride and the eating it part refers to said units inside sucking the business end of your bolters) Of course kitting your raven out with some fangs (nose mounted tl multi melta) and tl lascannons can also be a nasty prospect for any armored unit so really its up to you weather you want to punch hard or land more hits.

So using the above statements one can see that the Raven dose indeed have the capability to be both gunship and transport and still manage to balance the two. As a rule of thumb though you might want to take two. Using the same logic applied from lessons learned with the landraider its usually a good idea to split your opponents target priority, this also gives you the ability to outfit one unit as a striker and one as a hunter.

I have yet to formulate any pardigrams (fancy word for another word that means organization I think) for the Ravens use with the Grey Knights. This is mostly due to the fact that I cant see into the future and don't have many solid facts about the new composition. That aside though I see the greatest value in the Stormraven being it's ability to drop off all the kids at the pool (even the chubby one) A full unit of infantry plus a dred is great, and saves the need to throw that big bastard in a drop pod. That and the cornucopia of weapons options available also add a little extra spice to the mix. I still feel though that this unit is more suited as an infantry blender then part time tank hunter. There are also a few reasons that make the Raven a less then optimal choice when it comes to points and the force org, making the Raven a heavy support rather then a fast attack really limits its potential as a game changer, you have to choose between mobility and fire power when you field this thing.

Over all I don't see the Stormraven as a big game changer, I have seen it in action and I have read the reports, most of the time it's shot down shortly after deployment. In the land of IG mech lists and razor spam its hard to weather the storm of firepower being thrown around, at best you can really pummel a dug in unit That's been eyeing up that objective point. I have been wrong before though (so we entered an abandoned mine shaft instead of the gift shop big whoop) so I am fully prepared to eat crow on this one should things turn out different.

Cheers

Scott

BH Senior Editor.

Less for More: Blood Angels Battleforce

Today the blogosphear lit up as GW pulled back the curtain on the highly anticipated blood angels 2.5 wave release, and indeed it looked to be a solid release with many new models and the long hinted at battle force, which is why when I saw the battleforce I could not contain my overwhelming sense of unsatisfaction.

I mean I try not to rag on GW to hard, in fact I enjoy using a fair few of their products and Ill buy the occasional copy of white dwarf, but this set was so lacking it deserved commentary. Alright first off you are getting less by buying the blood angels battleforce, and not just a few pieces you are losing about a fourth of the pieces from the regular battleforce, they essentially yanked out the scouts and the additional combat squad and just dumped some Death company in there and slapped a new cover on the box, then ran to the rooftop and declared to all that a new box set was born. Normally I can take a little canoodling on the part of GW marketing dept, but this was just a slap in the face. Not only am I to pay more for this so called BA battle force but I am also expected to accept that death company are going to be a part of my army. GW is so sure that this will work that they felt it necessary to add another $10 to the regular price tag of $90.

lets look at some counter points. First off the Blood Angels are one of the hip new forces on the block (despite what the pointy eared space pervs might say) so naturally you can expect to pay a little more for a popular box set (this logic makes sense in the reverse universe that the GW marketing dept lives in where you where shoes on your hands and slaps to the face are a formal greeting) so I can see a few extra bucks for a set that looks and plays halfway decent is ok. Going back to them being the new kids on the block, they are new, well not brand new but if you look at things from a fiscal year perspective they are new, and they are not as popular as some other sets that have been bought and paid for long ago or already had molds but where re packaged. Combine that with the fact that GW is releasing two new large plastic kits and you could maybe get a glimpse of the big picture, molds cost money, lost of money, and while Dark Eldar may be flying off the shelf blood angels have been contempt to simmer.

So maybe those are not the best points, I am not great with economics and I sure as hell don't have a copy of GW's internal sales records for Q3 open in front of me right now. The one thing I do know though is when I or someone near me is getting screwed (its like spidy sense) I wont tell you not to buy this kit, but I will say that i would tally up your costs as apposed to buying a regular SM battleforce and some death company (especially from your FLGS or from WCC) Maybe there is something here I don't see, but then again there is already a few things I don't see and that's why I made this post.

Cheers

Scott

BH Senior Editor.

On The Painting Table: A lot of blisters

Over the holidays I managed to pick up a full list of commissions and projects from a few clients, what you see here is a big direct order that just came in last night that is made up of Cpt Stern, Eldrad, Tyrannic War vets, A librarian with book, Termie Chaplain and Kharn the Betrayer. You may also enjoy picking out the various other little doodads strewn about my work space (its kinda like those ISPY kids books) Anyways just wanted to get up a quick blurb, expect more updates in the near future.


Cheers

Scott

On The Painting Table: Chaos Termie Lord

Its been a month of firsts for me painting wise, it started with Tau and has now extended to Chaos. I have had a lot of 'fun' working on different combinations finding out which ones work best for getting that off the box look. I lucked out in a sense, with my client asking for Black Legion I can't say that this was a rough introduction in to chaos paint schemes, but it was interesting working out the right blend of golds and wash.

I loved the cape on this guy, on top of a bunch of bitz I will undoubtably be incorporating in another build in the near future this kit comes with a ton of nifty bitz and bobs. But the reason I like the cape is its folds take well to blending and washing.



And thats about it, as you may have noticed I have been playing around with my light box again, still working on getting that dialed in so bear with me in the mean time.


Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Project: Relictors

Its been awhile since I got one of my project posts up. I started out with the idea of doing up a whole battle company, unfortunately work, painting commissions and life kept me from getting anything substantial done with these. Ian helped me out by doing the basing so all in all they came out looking ok, I spent about a month getting the force built up and painted, I will probably use them as a secondary tournament list after I add another squad and a few more vehicles. Whats not pictured is the squad of sniper scouts and an assault squad I have yet to base.


I like how the terminators turned out, this was the first time I used a new technique for energy weapons, they are actualy a little less vivid in real life, I had edit a tad the color saturation (its hard to make a bounce flash out of a box covered in tinfoil and a single slave flash.

Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor.

Game Nights and Good deeds

First off I would like to direct you over to Dave Taylors site. As many of you already know two of his close friends are going through some rough times and he has selflessly started up a charity/auction, offering up a wonderfully crafted Adeptus Custodes army. Time and time again Dave has shown the community his incredible work and shared his tricks of the trade with us, so if you can, give a little to help out a lot.

Next up I would again like to tip my hat to another blog. This one goes out to Mike and John over at SC Warhammer, congratulations on your awesome game night (sadly I could not attend) That being said I would also like to report that BH's own game nights over at Legends comics and games in Cupertino have been becoming increasingly popular. This weekend wraps up the first leg of the on going 'Battle for Het' campaign. With over eight or so players whittled down to the top three its been a long fight for the top spot. If you want to get in on the action come by Fridays and Saturdays from 12-6pm every weekend.




In related news, our host Legends Comics and games took home the title of "Best in the Bay best comic book store" in the San Jose Metros best of the bay. And while the award is for best comic book store we know that a fair few of the votes also mentioned the game side, so from Legends to Bay Area readers and customers thank you.

Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Relictors Drop Pod WiP

Life has been keeping me plenty bust over the last few weeks, so my me time has been at a minimum. But I have still managed to pick away at the mountain that is my Relictors battle company. below is one of the three drop pods that I will be loading up with assualt marines and one dred (if this is a stupid idea please let me know) Other parts of the project include 50 infantry units and around 15-20 terminators and that's fust what I have on the work bench.

I still have to bash the whole thing together after the gloss dries, also I would like to thank Siph over at WeeMen for provideing me with a fair ammount of referance pictures for Relictors painting styles.

Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Undercoat Black: The straight dope

I was reading the comments on warseer about the new GW paint sets, and I noticed a trend in the comments, the amount of confusion over what exactly undercoat black is. Alright so let me start off with a little factoid that most people are not aware of, in the past and including the last paint set GW did not actually include chaos black, the black in the old paint set was actually a much thinner brush on primer. Ok so keeping that in mind, undercoat black is actually that brush on primer in a new bottle, it is not chaos black, the actual chaos black paint is a thicker mix and has a bit of a gloss finish, undercoat black is a thinner black matte paint. And indeed if you look on some of the older model boxes it shows the diagram of how to brush on the primer layer.

Well I hope that clears everything up.

Scott
BH Senior Editor.

SM Flavor of the month: Relictors

So I was browsing about the net looking for some interesting ideas for my third set of AoBR marines and happened to stumble upon a site based on the obscure and loosely official Relictors Space Marine chapter. After reading a bit more on the background and picking up the unofficial army list I was hooked, a phone call and a short meet up later and I managed to secure almost a full companies worth of mixed marines and other vehicles that I soon plan to add to full project (I plan to make a full battle company) But alas my plans where soon shoved off to the side when I managed to pick up a slight summer cold that has had me living on my couch for the last few days.

So here are a few marines and a terminator. I am brining in a termie librarian next week to make up my HQ choice for my actual list and another Land Raider for my assault marines. So as always questions and comments always welcome.


Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor.

Brawl In The Hall: Battle Report.

So Sundays game came and went and the mood over all was good. But shocker of shockers the game ended in a draw, so stay tuned for next weeks installment covering the sudden death bout to finish the tourney. Moving right along with the here and now, the game lasted well into the evening (we started at 12pm and ended around 8pm) and we saw a few changes in the roster due to a last minute withdraw by Heavy D. So I became a judge and D and his Eldar allied with with new comer Derek and his Blood Angels while Dan and Mike played there combined Imperial list. The lines where drawn and the Titans prepped, so here is the mostly complete account of what went down.


Turn one see's a stunted deployment of armor (mostly Dan's and turn one for the most part didn't happen) A battery of basilisks and a stormlord and Baneblade make for some menacing if not vulnerable targets for D's Phantoms. The guard make a play to lock out an objective early on and provide a minor threat towards the towering Eldar war machines by deploying a harasser squad of scout sentinels with auto cannons right on the Eldars doorstep forcing them to prioritize there targets rather then target the larger more valuable armor and Basilisk formation. The guard made a effort to blast away a structure point or two from the Eldars titans but to no avail. Now you may notice a growing line of guardians snaking along The Eldar deployment zone, this was actually part of a clever play devised by D to thwart any pesky out flanking maneuvers on his side of the board and as far as I know it worked. The top of turn two finds the Eldar making a good show of scrapping the guards forward armored push by almost immediately scrapping Dan's stormlord (which for some reason he left completely empty) and blasting apart a handful of sentinels. The remaining IG forces are forced back out of no mans land and the area becomes a neutral zone yet again.

Here we see the bottom of turn two, Dan un swayed by the loss of his sentinels pushes forward into no mans land yet again with his Demolisher's. But the real show stopper this turn was the massed artillery barrage that almost completely crippled one of the Phantoms leaving it immobile with only one functioning weapon and one less structure point.

The top of turn three and the Blood Angels make their move deploying deep into the guards rear lines, deep striking a dreadnought and land raider almost right on top of the guard. The BA are not able to scrap any guard armor but they remain a menacing threat against the guard well into the next turn, in the same turn the Blood Angels deploy Dante with a full compliment of Sanguinary guard into the objective point in no mans land effectively tipping the balance into the Eldars favor. The biggest hit from the Eldar came as expected from the titans as the phantoms opened up on the Reaver shredding it down to one structure point but otherwise leaving it operational. Turn three ends with the Eldar and Blood Angels taking the lead, holding both objective points in no mans land.


Above we see the Sanguinary guard holding the central objective point while the BA termies deep strike using the locator beacon in the dreds drop pod to strike deep at the guards rear flank.


The bottom of turn three and the Guard are in full deployment bringing everything out of strategic reserve and making a rather good show of it as well. here we see the massed ranks of armor preparing for their forward push. Right now I myself was enjoying wing stop so you'll forgive me if the details are a bit sparse on the first wave of attacks. Starting in short order the guard opened up with the Baneblade crippling the Phantom further and taking off a few structure points for their trouble, then the Reaver and shadow sword unleashed a fusillade further damaging the phantom leaving it for all intensive purposes dead in place. This turn the terminators would also suffer the wrath of the Guards guns suffering the loss of near half there force and the destruction of the Land Raider and Dreadnought. The guard also make a push to secure their own objective points, but fall just short. Turn three ends with the Eldar and BA still in the lead holding both Objectives.




The Eldar sweep the remaining Imperial forces from no mans land and leave the reaver a ticking time bomb on the Imperials side while shredding a few structure points from the guards super heavies and leaving the baneblades main gun destroyed. The bottom of turn four and the guard manage to seize an objective, though still lagging behind they manage to level out the score slightly. In the top of turn four the Blood Angels termies made an attempt to engage the guards Basilisks sitting at the rear but due to some bad rolls they only managed to scratch the paint a bit.


Above we see Dan just after deploying his strategic asset, re deploying the now unstable Reaver right at the Eldars feet, unable to move or shoot but offering the menacing prospect of an apocalyptic explosion should the final blow be a powerful one. After re deploying the Reaver the Guard resume bombarding the one already crippled Phantom, this time the graceful giant was destroyed and removed from play. Meanwhile the formation of Valkyrie drop ships speed towards the center objective in a desperate bid to contest the most valuable bit of property in the game. Turn 4 ends with the guard having removed one of the titans and moving to take a second objective, effectively tieing the game.


Turn Five See's the Valkyrie formation hammered by D cannons and blown apart leaving the storm troopers inside out in the open a mere stones throw from the objective (freshman Tom assists with the game after Dan had to duck out) The Eldar also land a misplaced shot on one of the guards buildings, the D strength blast destroys the building entirely and its occupants dropping the Guard back into second place. The Reaver still stands as the Eldar side did not wish to risk a meltdown.

So this is where my side of the story comes to an end, the bottom of turn 5 and the guard roll out in a desperate push for supremacy doing there best to turn the tide (though to be honest the guard seemed to be making up a fair bit of the tide already) The center objective is blasted out of existence by a well placed Shadowsword blast over the Sanguinary guard, removing both Dante and the rest of his squad along with the building. The Reaver is now fully mobile and unleashes a hail of fire on the warlock stripping away two structure points and a shoulder weapon. At this point the Eldar are in the lead holding one of the two remaining objectives. Turn six rolls around and the Warlock destroys the Reaver, but in the process causes a reactor meltdown that causes both the eldar guardians and the building they where holding to be blasted out of existence, this effectively tied the game since neither side had any troops with in range of an objective.

So next Sunday the game resumes, with new terrain configuration and new lists to decide who will be entered into the hall of Legends (other wise known as the cool little plaque I am going to have made) So stay tuned this week, both for Bay Hammer Radio and to see who will win.

I would like to thank Legends Comics And Games in Cupertino for hosting this event, and all those who worked to make this happen, but above all I would like to thank the players, without you guys this never would have happend.

Also Congrats to the winners of the Stormwardens charity Raffle, and a special salute to everyone involved with the project.

Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Kicking back: Tales of Violence and Unused vacation time

Let me start off with Bay Hammer radios finalized rescheduled time is this coming Friday at 6pm PST.

This week I have been taking it easy, working on my side projects and actually going out and breathing fresh air and getting some actual sunlight and on top of those little refreshers I have been getting a lot of solid game time in with D and the twins (the phantom and warlock) and its been a quite enjoyable experience honing my list for optimal titan killing power (even though last Sundays 10k apoc game lasted only 3hrs). Now I must explain something here, when D and myself play Apocalypse, its not so much to actually play the game as it is more of a 40k version of fight club where we beat the crap out of each other and see what works out best strategy wise.


In other news I have been working on a few side projects, chief among them being the Reaver but last week a friend of mine came to me with a Land Raider Terminus he wanted painted and being the ever curious type I accepted. Now feel free to call me cheesy at this point but I am doing up his SM as Storm Wardens, and again if you have not donated to the Storm Wardens charity (click the banner at the top of the page) then do so if you can, every little bit counts. So to wrap things up here's a quick snap of the Terminus.


Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Stall in the Hall: Apoc Battle Report (In HD)

So D and myself where joined by a few of the usual suspects for a pick up 20,000 point game over at Legends, then Ian showed up and I found myself pulling out some guard pieces for another IG player that showed up and as the following pictures and commentary will show, things quickly spiraled out of control from there. So read on for a tail of suspense and poor planning, as well as some super cool pics.


Alright so here we are at turn one, The imperials are fielding roughly 5000 pts each. Ian's blood angels are all in reserve minus the armor above. D's fielded a number of super heavies including his new Revenant and the tempests. And our ork war boss has as usual tabled to hoard, things are indeed looking bleak for the imperial forces.

The top half of turn one See's the orks making a mad dash into no mans land, a move that ultimately ended in several ork buggies turbo boosting into each other and generally causing a few good natured laughs about the event. Ork forces move up to support the forward push which consisted mainly of Boyz and trukks. The Imperial forces counter with heavy artillery, pounding the Orks mob of Kan's while Ian's blood angels make a valiant if not short sighted armored thrust into the oncoming hoard. The Land Raider crusader laid down some impressive fire sending more then a few Boyz to the side table while the IGs Shadow Sword bored into the Revenant, narrowly shaving off a structure point and effectively limping the nimble titan. D's Eldar didn't really do much in turn one, mostly just maneuvered into a support position flanking the orks.

Turn two saw Ian gone (as in literally) and I found myself in charge of a list and an army which I knew vary little about and left facing an angry mess of fists and guns. As the above picture shows (and if you where a observant lad) that the land raider was forcibly moved a fair distance away from its starting location. The ork stompa scored a direct hit with its lifta droppa arm and casually tossed that thing around like a soda can in a hurricane. The initial idea was that the falling land raider would be used to wipe out the Furioso Dreadnought sitting there, alas that was the one part of the story that ended well, the LR was disabled but the Dred survived the Dorthy treatment. Other shots from the ork Flash gitz rained down on the IG's tanks but again we got a lucky break from the dice gods and survived the hail of super accelerated grotz. The Eldar got in the game with flinging a few wild shots towards the imperial lines, which again mercifully fell short.



The bottom of turn two saw some very angry moves by Imperial forces. Starting with IG Hellhounds out flanking a dug in lot of Ork Lobbas, the crater above was full of them prior to the arrival of said hellhounds. Again IG artillery pummels the forward Ork lines and (in my mind anyways) rending apart flesh and bone and sending up showers of orky goodness, but to little effect, the orks just consolidate and the surge pushes forward into the waiting guns of the guard.

For the blood angels turn I simply used the ancient chess strategy, take your most powerful piece and beat the other player with it until things start to die (I was in a state that I would say is the closest a conscious person can come to being in a waking coma) so my tactics at that point involved abusing Ian's poor sanguinary guard. And abuse them I did, they smashed apart the straggled remains of a fragmented squad of mek boyz and shredded D's striking scorpions (and where promptly taken from behind by the Wraithguard) but as frustrated and short sighted moves go this was one of my more successful ones. By this point the titans at both sides had been taking pot shots at each other and neither really doing much other then harassing the infantry.


This is at about 6 pm and all of us are quite hot and bothered by now due to a mixture of getting off to a late start and the game basically dragging along. In a final act of destruction the Stompa blasted apart all 30 of Ian's death company and several assault marines. The IG also took some hits loosing a chunk of infantry to ork guns. The game essentially ended in a stalemate, with no declared objectives and neither side really having lost enough units to call an even victory,

So that pretty much sums things up, what follows are some other pictures of cool stuff which I grabbed early on during the battle.

(This I thought was rather nifty)

Well that's about it for now. Hope you enjoy the ample pics and commentary.

Happy Gaming

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Death company Stormlord!

Hey there! I decided to buy myself a Stormlord and make it my own by having it taken by death company. when i modeled it i took the I.G tank commander off and put on a death company marine with a jetpack (just to make it interesting) i thought it was quite funny.


I also have 15 more death company to put together, and using the stormlord as a transport is amazing, plus since the Stormlord counts as open topped, I can charge too, This will get me the most out of my assault when I do my armored rush since they gain those extra attacks when assaulting.


Also I am looking forward to Friday for our first broadcast of Bay Hammer radio at 6pm pst on ustream. Tune in to hear myself, Scott and D navigate their way through the airwaves.

Here is our link to ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bay-hammer

we look forward to seeing you guys tune in, see you then!

NEWS: You can put away your gauss rifles

Recently sources have indicated that its going to be tyranids that get the next codex update, now while I cannot say 100% the markers for an update are in place. You simply have to look around your FLGS or ask at a GW store for a Codex or battleforce, that's right as of this month GW has pulled both Codex:Tyranids and the nid battleforce from there retail catalog. This came as some what of a surprise when I glanced over there latest retail SKU book and found both items suspiciously missing but if GWs past release practices are any indicator you can bet that they will be going over nids next.

How do I feel about this. Well as a Guard/SM player and veteran Eldar Seer I am not overly pleased that neither my space elves or there pigment challenged brethren did not get the update bracket but speaking bluntly the nids deserve it, now not to say they got blind sided like DE or the Necrons but this is a popularity contest and lets be honest a lot more people have been picking up nids lately so GW goes where the money is. So in short its wonder full that one of the older books/races is getting an update and while its not on of my personal taste at least GW is actually doing it.

What's wrong with space hulk?
I have been meaning to get this short rant off my chest since I got a crack at the set so here it goes. GW botched the marketing of Space Hulk, now don't get me wrong good on them for bringing it back but this space hulk has absolutely no soul. It was concocted in the labs of GWs marketing dept to make all our wallets a little lighter. Instead of putting forth a game with in the genera of 40k to entice new and interested/younger players they have brought forth a limited release monster packed with detailed models that even I am having trouble getting in every detail to make them presentable (though not to say you couldn't play unpainted but come on) it is how ever still the great game it always has been made greater by better molding techniques and new rules but I have to say that a hulking price tag along with a overwhelming set of detailed models is to far beyond the reach of the casual board gamer. I think if anything GW owes us at least a secondary release this Christmas. Speaking of the holidays if you have the remote chance of getting a copy of SH before they haul out the tinsel do so because retail sources are indicating available copies could rise in price to over $199.00 based on demand, and GW has already sold out online. WCC might still have a few so get a copy while you can or hey buy two and resell and twice the value and go pick up that forge world model you have always wanted.

Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Weekend Round Up

Your Local Game Store:

Saturday was of course uneventful, both in part because of it being the 4th and some internal communication errors, Sunday however I managed to get an unplanned game in, or I should say 2 turns of a game in. Most of Sunday was spent down in the Octagon over at Legends re surfacing the terrain tables and painting up most of the buildings and such. Other then that though not much going on but stay tuned, Bay Hammer Radio will be coming to you live in another week or so to cover planetstrike and the 3rd wave of IG and possibly talk about some tips and tactics when playing, or going up against a horde army.

A Word From our Sponsors:

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Unfortunetly we could only play about 2 turns but here are some pics from my game on sunday, we where both fielding about 1100 points, I of course was using my oh so trusty AoBR Dark Angels and Bryce had of course brought out the hord. By the end of turn 2 I had killed 3 of his boys, 4 storm boyz and immobilised and partialy disabled his Kan, I lost two termies but the game is yet to be resolved and we do plan to pick it back up at a later date. Over all it was fun to finaly play against some of his armie and try out the new board (which he had just finished painting that morning)

Photos provided by Bryce and his mI-phone

Cheers

Scott

BH Senior Editor

Weekend Showdown/1st BoLs post

On The Battlefield:

This weekend over at Legends I managed to get in a brawl with my number one knock down drag out arch enemy army (the guy I played was very nice though) anyways if your wondering, its Necrons, years of abuse at the hands of 3 Edition (unpainted) Necrons had left me a bitter and tested man when it comes to fighting them. However this game turned out to be rather casual and fun, my opponent played a great game and for the most part I won a fair game (we both played about 1000 points) So now after realising how badly GW has neglected that codex I have taken a much softer view on playing them, this dose not mean I wont do everything I can to blow them away but this game was definitely one of sportsmanship.

Deployment saw my Dark Angels fielding two 10 man tac squads, a chapter master, two dreadnoughts with Multi meltas and a squad of termies and a razorback with a twin plas las configuration.

He fielded 3 destroyers 6 scarab swarms, 20 Warriors and one lord with the orb (I was assured that that was 1000 points)


Turn one saw my orbital strike obliterate his scarab swarms (by accident naturally) which In my opinion possibly lead to my victory later on do to the loss of the only unit that might have taken down my Razorback.

Turn 2 was mostly short movement, I brought my Dreadnoughts up to the front and he swung his destroyers around to face my Razorback while I played it safe and kept my Tac squads out of range and stationary so I could fire twin frag missiles into his ranks through the broken cover.

Turn 3 was a firefight between my dug in marines and a unit of his Warriors of which he had attached his lord to, in the end I felled 4 of them but thanks to the "well be back" rule he had managed to resurrect all 4. It was at this point that his lords squad became the soul target of the full force of my dreadnoughts, but to no avail I managed to wing a lone Destroyer and wound his lord but he managed to bounce back.



Turn 4 was mostly much of the same but by now he had lost 3 of his warriors and my Razor back was doing its best to lay into his Destroyers with a full barrage from the twin las plas and storm bolter but again he made some damn good saves, oh it is at this point I will mention that my termies which where brought to the front also suffered some damage, I lost two but by the shinning light of the dice gods I managed to make a miraculous 10 saves (don't ask me how)


Turn 5 was a drag out fire fight but when the dice stopped rolling and the dust had settled 2 of his Destroyers where down and he had jumped his remaining warriors to my side of the table to face off. He managed to blast away 4 Tac marines but by turn 6 I was on the counter attack.

Turn 6 saw my heavies open up in full force with my two rocket launchers and a flamer which in the end smashed his lord and another warrior, here we can see the end result with his broken Destroyers.

Over all it was a great game and I hope to get the chance to play him again although maybe with a little less armor. In the end though what really capped it was my heavy weapons and ranged armor. I think that had I taken Sicarius as I usually do instead of a chapter master things may have gone differently. When it came down to it he was prepared for an assault where as I planned a ranged offensive (I played eldar and now guard of course I am going to be shooty) though to be fair the tactics I used where more guard then space marine, I simply filed up my marines and moved my armor into cover and began multiple barrages which over the course of the game eventually ground down his warriors.

On The Work Bench:
Its a new week and guess what I am back on the the guard, that right I now can devote my attention the the Hammer of the imperium because today my order from pig iron came in. 20 Kol militia covered heads to go nicely on the 69th troopers. I also got in my tech priest from WCC, which I have to say was a thrill to paint slightly inebriated, but still i love the robes and bare metal on this model, I wish my camera was not in such a temperamental state. So expect more on the Guard in the coming weeks.



Ok just a reminder, on the 1st of July we will be officially announcing the Bay Hammer Radio contest so stay tuned for that on the blog.


Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor